COPENHAGEN, DENMARK—Some 2,000 spirals made of gold have been unearthed in a field in southwestern Zealand, where four gold bracelets and six gold bowls have been found in the past. The spirals date to the Bronze Age, between 900 and 700 B.C. “Maybe the spirals were fastened to the threads lining a hat or parasol. Maybe they were woven into hair or embroidered on a ceremonial garb. The fact is that we do not know, but I am inclined to believe that they were part of a priest-king’s garb or part of some headwear,” Flemming Kaul of the Danish National Museum said in a Danish-language press release reported in The Local. The site has now yielded the most gold jewelry and other artifacts by weight from the northern European Bronze Age. “The sun was one of the holy symbols in the Bronze Age and gold was presumably seen as having some sort of particular magic power. It is colored like the sun, it shines like the sun, and because gold lasts forever, it was also seen as containing some of the sun’s power,” Kaul said. To read more in-depth about the Bronze Age, go to "Wolf Rites of Winter."
Bronze Age Gold Spirals Discovered in Denmark
News July 8, 2015
Recommended Articles
Digs & Discoveries March/April 2022
A Shining Example
Digs & Discoveries November/December 2024
Bronze Age Paleontologists
Digs & Discoveries November/December 2024
Secrets of a Silver Hoard
-
Features May/June 2015
The Minoans of Crete
More than 100 years after it was first discovered, the town of Gournia is once again redefining the island's past
(Jarrett A. Lobell) -
Letter from Hawaii May/June 2015
Inside Kauai's Past
Ideal conditions within an ancient cave system are revealing a rich history that reaches back to a time before humans settled the island and extends to the present day
Courtesy Lida Piggott Burney -
Artifacts May/June 2015
Late Roman Amulet
(Courtesy Joachim Śliwa) -
Digs & Discoveries May/June 2015
The Charred Scrolls of Herculaneum
(Fotonews/Splash News/Corbis)